Fort 52 “Borek”: An Artillery Fort of the Kraków Fortress
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Poland
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Austria-Hungary, Habsburg
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page9 sections
History
Fort 52 “Borek” is an Austro-Hungarian artillery fort in Kraków, Poland, built in 1885–1886 as part of the Kraków Fortress. It belonged to Defensive Sector VIII, a section of the defensive ring covering the area between the Wilga and upper Vistula valleys. The fort was probably designed by Daniel Salis-Soglio, a military architect associated with fortification design in the Austro-Hungarian sphere.
Construction and military role
The Kraków Fortress was a defensive system built around Kraków when the city belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Fort 52 “Borek” was intended to block the exits of the principal roads, defend the Vienna route, now followed by the Zakopianka, and protect the approaches to the fortress ring from the direction of Libertów. Three forts in the Przemyśl Fortress were later constructed on its model.
The fort did not take part in combat during the First World War. Its military design combined artillery and infantry roles, with separate ramparts for heavier and lighter defensive weapons.
Wartime use and later decline
During the Second World War, Russian and French prisoners of war were held at the fort. On 26 December 1944, a damaged American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber made a forced landing in front of the fort with its landing gear retracted. The aircraft had been damaged during a raid on the refinery at Blechhammer, now Blachownia in Kędzierzyn-Koźle, and its crew had been trying to reach territory controlled by the Red Army.
Until the 1990s, the fort housed the vehicle and equipment base of a construction cooperative. It then stood unused for several years and deteriorated technically. Fort 52 “Borek” was entered in Kraków’s register of historic monuments under number A-807 on 7 June 1989.
Revitalization and present role
Revitalization took place between 2013 and 2022. On 30 July 2022, management passed to the Podgórze Cultural Centre, and the fort became the seat of the Polish Song Library. In June 2022, the surrounding grounds were landscaped and opened as a park for local residents.
Remains
Fortifications and circulation
Ramparts and caponiers
Fort 52 “Borek” is a two-rampart artillery fort. The higher rampart was designed for artillery, while the lower rampart served infantry and light guns. Its caponiers, fortified structures projecting into or along a ditch to fire into the ditch and its approaches, were first armed with mitrailleuses, early rapid-fire weapons with multiple rifle barrels, and later with machine guns.
Underground routes
The fort contains Kraków’s first three-level underground intersection of routes used to move soldiers and transport weapons. This circulation system formed part of the fort’s internal military organization and connected its underground spaces with the defensive functions of the structure.
Setting and grounds
The fort stands between Korpala Street, Władysława Krygowskiego Street, and Forteczna Street. Its grounds now include landscaped parkland. The area in front of the fort where the American bomber landed in 1944 became overgrown with trees after the war.
